Washington-The Pentagon has confirmed that a U.S. air strike killed ISIS leader and spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani in northern Syria end of August.

“The strike near Al Bab, Syria, removes from the battlefield ISIS’s chief propagandist, recruiter and architect of external terrorist operations,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said earlier this week.

“It is one in a series of successful strikes against ISIS leaders, including those responsible for finances and military planning, that make it harder for the group to operate.”

The air strike was conducted by a Predator drone, which fired a Hellfire missile at the car Adnani was traveling in.

The United States had said on Aug. 30 that Adnani had been targeted in a strike, but it stopped short of confirming his death.

Soon after the strike against Adnani, the Russian defense ministry said it was responsible for his death, a claim Pentagon officials dismissed as a “joke.”